Finally bought a third gen. 91 Firebird, with a big block swap. Took off driver side panel and found this. I am learning as I go but have noticed a lot of different things with it being swapped. Is this to defeat sensors or to trick the ecm? I’m going to obviously leave everything alone as it works just fine, just trying to figure out why this was done. Builder of the car passed away but everything on it is clearly done intentionally and with purpose. Thanks!

 

Looks kinda like the starter. What color are the wires?

 

yellow and brown.

 

Starter enable relay bypass, so the relay or the vats isn’t working or someone just bypassed the relay.

 

You rock. I appreciate it!!

 

Note that this mod on its own is only 1/2 of a VATS delete, so there may be a variety of other mods done to the car for the rest of the bypass. Or the relay simply went bad and the previous owner didn't want to get another one. Since it's not particularly secured, consider adding some zipties to arrest movement of the wire or at least remember to check there if the car won't crank at some point.

 

Since the car has been big block swapped, it's not likely it's running the original fuel injection/ECM.

Big Block Bird, what does it presently have handling fuel delivery? A carb? A stand alone fuel injection system? If the original FI system is gone then the starter enable relay was all that was left of VATS anyway, so that jumper is the only modification (beyond whatever replaced the original FI/ECM) that your likely to find.

 

It is carb, I believe it has a damper system (but again, all new to me, so not sure) there is some other electrical components under the dash and some other stuff plugged in the fuse block.